Fallen: A Novel [Hardcover]

Karin Slaughter (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 21, 2011

There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. . . .
 
“You know what we’re here for. Hand it over, and we’ll let her go.”
 
When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions, not enough answers. To find her mother, she’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they’ll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore—she’s a witness. She’s also a suspect.
 
The thin blue line hides police corruption, bribery, even murder. Faith will have to go up against the people she respects the most in order to find her mother and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever. 

Karin Slaughter’s most exhilarating novel yet is a thrilling journey through the heart and soul, where the personal and the criminal collide, and conflicted loyalties threaten to destroy reputations and ruin lives. It is the work of a master of the thriller at the top of her game, and a whirlwind of unrelenting suspense.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for FALLEN


“An amazing effort. This is Slaughter's best book to date, and readers unfamiliar with her work will find this one a perfect place to begin.”
—Associated Press


“The first 16 pages of Karin Slaughter’s new novel are a master class in suspense….Fallen, Slaughter’s 11th novel in 11 years, shows again that she is in the first rank of today’s crime novelists. Her story is expertly written, exhaustively researched, steeped in police lore, deeply rooted in the author’s native Georgia and exceedingly violent. Slaughter has a rare ability to balance violence with a compassionate view of her complex and all-too-human characters. She’s a supremely tough-minded novelist who often writes with exceptional sensitivity…..Fallen is a complex, gripping and deadly serious novel that reflects anew Slaughter’s abundant talent. If you haven’t read her, you should.”   —The Washington Post

“Karin Slaughter has written a novel that is complex, unsettling, and with one of the meatiest suspense plots of the summer.”   —Tucson Citizen

“Slaughter just keeps getting better!”  
—Romantic Times Book Review

“Her talent is the equivalent of an Edgar Allan Poe or a Nathaniel Hawthorne.…You can't dismiss the growth of Slaughter's talent. She has always been a good writer but of late she has become an exemplary storyteller, weaving her words with skill and intelligence. Fallen is a prime example of her talent….Sometime in the future, college classes will be devoted to Slaughter's books and her writing skills will be dissected. She will be recognized as one of the great talents of the 21st century and will hold an honored place in the realm of world literature.”  —Huffington Post

“Slaughter has always known how to pace the suspense in her stellar crime novels, but she really outdoes herself here….In what might be her best effort yet, Slaughter reveals the heart and soul of her characters within a highly choreographed, unrelentingly suspenseful plot.”  
 —Booklist (starred)

“Karin has set a high bar with each of her books—and she delivers….Once you close it, you will need time to think about the story as you finally exhale.”  —Bookreporter

“Gripping….a thriller sure to please Slaughter’s many fans.”  —Publishers Weekly

“Slaughter's thrillers are always exciting, but it's her compelling characters that really make them page-turners.”  —Minneapolis Star Tribune

“This is Slaughter’s best thriller yet.”  —Bookloons




PRAISE FOR THE CRIME FICTION OF KARIN SLAUGHTER
 
“Karin Slaughter is one of the best crime novelists in America.”—The Washington Post
 
“Crime fiction at its finest.”—Michael Connelly
 
“Slaughter writes like a razor . . . better than Cornwell can ever hope to be.”—The Plain Dealer
 
“Slaughter will have you on the edge of your seat.”—The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
 
“One of the boldest thriller writers working today.”—Tess Gerritsen
 
“Move over, Catherine Coulter—Slaughter may be today’s top female suspense writer.”—Library Journal (starred review)

About the Author

Karin Slaughter is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of eleven thrillers, including Broken, Undone, Fractured, Beyond Reach, Triptych, and Faithless. She is a native of Georgia.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Edition edition (June 21, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345528204
• ISBN-13: 978-0345528209
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 8.5 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (267 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,238 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karin Slaughter is a New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author. She is a native of Georgia.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#42 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#47 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#53 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#69 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

#42 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery

#47 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Thrillers

#48 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Mystery & Thrillers > Mystery

#53 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers

#69 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

124 of 139 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars "Please help me I'm fallin, in love with you." Song Lyrics June 3, 2011

By michael a. draper TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Karin Slaughter has been entertaining her fans with exciting thrillers with ten novels to her name. One of the reasons that she is so well thought of is that she describes her characters in a way that makes the reader want to know more.

Faith Mitchell shows that she's got the same problems as many parents. She has an infant being watched by her mother and must get home to pick up the child.

Her mother, Evelyn, a retired police commander, is watching Faith's four-month-old dauther, Emma. Faith has been through countless training exercises but when she sees a bloody handprint on her mother's door, she goes into another gear.

After Faith calls for backup, she senses that her mother is in danger and decides not to wait. She enters the home and finds one man deceased, then she confronts two others. There is a deadly encounter at this point that is most visual, as if the reader were watching the action taking place before them.

Will Trent is Faith's partner. Amanda Wagner is his boss and Evelyn's best friend. They lead the investigation and we learn that Evelyn was the commander of a narcotics division prior to her retirement. There was a situation within her unit and due to the legal implications, Evelyn took an early retirment.

The story deals with the loyalty Will and Amanda have for their friend Evelyn. The evidence seems to show that there may be a problem with Evelyn's background but her friends remain strong in their belief of her.

There is also an interesting subplot as Will and Dr. Sara Linton spend time together and form a romantic relationship. We also see Faith wanting to do everything that she can to save her mother and so she begins her own investigation.

The story moves along swiftly and with an inventive plot, knock out characters and a fascinating conclusion, this makes for an engrossing read.

34 of 40 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Characters Make Book Impossible to Put Down May 30, 2011

By Dindy Robinson VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Disclaimer: Reviewer received a free copy of this book from Amazon Vine in exchange for an honest review.

Fallen, by Karin Slaughter, is the latest book in her series following Dr. Sara Linton and GBI Investigator, Will Trent. In this book, GBI Investigator Faith Mitchell arrives at her mother's house after work to pick up her baby daughter, only to find her daughter locked in the tool shed, her mother missing, and several gang members occupying her mother's house, which soon turns into a bloody battlefield. The action continues as Faith's formidable boss, Amanda Wagner, arrives and butts head with the Atlanta Police Department over jurisdiction. Amanda and Will pursue their investigation, as do the Atlanta Police Department, and Faith tries to pursue her own investigation and find her mother while keeping her son and daughter safe.

The mystery plot is confusing, often hard to follow, and reaches back to Will Trent's early years when he investigated Faith's mother for corruption and arrested many of the men in her squad. The book is peppered with an array of former police officers who have been or still are imprisoned, and a conglomeration of gang members. As always, Amanda knows more than she's telling but Will chafes more than usual under her manipulation of him and the people around him.

The mystery, really didn't hold my attention much-- there were just too many characters and too many subplots, and I wasn't able to keep track of all of them. What really made this book for me was the byplay between Will and Amanda, Will and Faith, Will and Angie, and Will and Sara. In this book we finally see Will start to take a step forward out of the well of misery, humiliation and sadness that has been his life, and his inner core of pure goodness comes through. What kept me turning the pages was seeing how far Amanda could push him and wondering if he would ever push back.

If you have never read a book in this series before, I would advise you to read some of the other books before you read this one so you can get familiar with the characters. If you are really interested in a plot involving a bunch of former cops and shady gang members and an old investigation about police corruption, this book may not be the one for you. But if you have become as involved in these characters as I have and want to read about a turning point in the development of Will's character, you have to read this book.

(And just as a note, I am racking my brain trying to figure out what the obscene name is that Will wants to call Amanda that rhymes with her own name, but I'm just not getting it!)

46 of 58 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Uncharacteristically flat June 7, 2011

By E. Jacobs TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Karin Slaughter has surprised me in the past with her ability to write thrillers that are not standard, write-by-numbers, predictable stories. She usually has really interesting and nuanced characters who are incredibly unique and likeable, and plots that are anything but run-of-the-mill. Unfortunately, this latest offering seemed to me to fall short of her usual writing prowess.

This book features cop and single mother Faith Mitchell, who comes home from work to find her mother missing and a dead body. As expected this ignites an investigation that quickly derails with way too many characters, subplots, and complications. This would be okay if there was a reward at the end of the story, but there's not. The motivation for most of the criminals in this case is never made clear, and the book has too many half-baked red herrings involving years-old cases.

Overall, I'd probably give this one a pass. I am sure Ms. Slaughter has many excellent stories left in her; this just did not happen to be one of them.